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Tour de France Tower of Zabel on cloud nine as he takes stage
by Justin Davis
BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, France, July 8 (AFP) - German sprinting legend Erik Zabel
won the 194.5km first stage of the Tour de France from St Omer here Sunday
though he was still left fuming that his Telekom team had left his main
lead-in man Gian-Matteo Fagnini out of the squad for the race.
The five-time green jersey winner, who turned 31 on Saturday, beat home
Latvia's world champion Roman Vainsteins in a sprint finish with Frenchman
Jimmy Casper third, to record his ninth career stage win in the Tour de France.
France's Christophe Moreau, who won Saturdays' prologue, retained the
overall leaders' yellow jersey as Zabel held on to the green jersey which he
has virtually monopolised since 1995.
Zabel, who won a fourth Milan-San Remo classic earlier this season, claimed
it as a great victory.
However, he added it would be difficult to win another green jersey this
time round as Telekom had decided to sacrifice Fagnini in favour of an extra
helper for team leader and 1997 Tour champion Jan Ullrich.
"Its' a great win for me but this Tour is going to be a huge challenge," he
said.
"They (Telekom) just decided to go with one sprinter this time round so Jan
would benefit as he is in great form," he added shrugging his shoulders.
Zabel, speaking at a post-race press conference where he said that Belgian
sprint ace Tom Steels was his main influence, added: "I have to deal with the
situation (one sprinter) and hope the atmosphere in the team stays the same.
"There's a long way to go until Paris and I just have to be patient."
Zabel has the challenge cut out for him with Vainsteins, Casper and a host
of ambitious young sprinters including Australian Stuart O'Grady and Norway's
Thor Hushovd looking to make their mark.
The peloton started under dark skies but the rain stayed away for the
duration of the stage, although two falls, a freight train and two ambitious
peloton escapees meant that the Tour was not without drama.
French veteran and former yellow jersey winner Jacky Durand - who in 1999
won both the 'lanterne rouge' prize for last-placed rider as well as the prize
for combativity - had built up more than a two-minute lead by the 62nd km over
the peloton, although Christophe Oriol soon caught up and joined him for the
rest of the stage.
Moreau was momentarily forced to the back of the peloton in a bid - as laid
down in the Tour rules concerning riders in trouble - to sort out mechanical
problems with his bike but rejoined minutes later.
However, the two escapees progess was halted at the 102.5km mark shortly
after the second bonus sprint when they were forced to stop at a railway
crossing to await an oncoming train.
Both riders, who had raced to a seven-minute lead over the peloton, lost
3:20 although they whiled away their time munching away on snacks and signing
autographs for bemused local fans.
When the peloton arrived minutes later, it was forced to sit behind the
race director's car at an easy pace to allow for the race leaders' time loss,
although they benefited from that decision as race officials later admitted
they had only delayed them for 2:00.
Durand, on his ninth participation on the Grande Boucle, and Oriol, on his
second, chased down the third bonus points but by this time the peloton - led
by the points-hungry Credit Agricole's Australian rider Stuart O'Grady - had
decided to get its act together and closed the gap to 5:20.
Belgian team Domo concentrated their efforts on getting their Latvian world
champion Romans Vainsteins to the front of the peloton and managed to close
the gap to just over four minutes.
Festina then took over the chase, with their youngest rider Florent Brard
showing his potential, but then green jersey hunter O'Grady, with just over
30km to go and the gap down to 3:30, upped the tempo.
Durand and Oriol, with 20km still to ride, were being chased hard with the
peloton now less than two minutes adrift.
By the end of the second category four climb - on which Durand assured
himself the polka dot jersey for the King of the Mountains title - the lead
was down to 42secs and Oriol was struggling.
With only a few kilometres Durand's 124.5km solitary escape ended as
defending champions US Postal swallowed up the French pair, with one-day
classic specialist George Hincapie leading the peloton.
However as the peloton rode into Boulogne-sur-Mer, the green machine - as
Zabel is unofficially known - turned on the sprinting powers which, barring a
breakdown of communication in the Telekom team, from now on he will be using
until Paris.
© AFP 2001
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